bacon



UNITED-` STATES PATENT OFFICE.

f EAELE o. BACON, OE NEW YORK, N. Y.

e WIRE-ROPE TRANIWAY.

vSPl-Il(IITEICU-LTION forming part of Letters Patent N o. 380,011, dated March 27, 1,888.

Application filed March 16, 1887.

.To all whom it may concerm' Y Beit known that I, EARLE C. BACON, a citizen of the United States,and a resident of New York city, in the county and State of Newv the invention consists, mainly, in the means' hereinafter described and claimed for adjusting the apparatus to meet the expansion or contraction of the wire rope by heat and cold, or to take up any slack that may result from the stretching of the rope under the strain of heavy loads.

In the accompanying drawings, which form a part of this specification, Figure 1 represents a plan view of one of the terminal stations; Fig. 2, a longitudinal sectional elevation of the same; Fig. 3, a transverse sectional elevation on the line w x, Fig. 1; Fig. 4, a detail view showing one of the supporting-pulleys and the relation thereto of the wire rope and carriage as the latter passes'over the pulley.

The .wheels around which the rope runs are mounted on and supported by a frame-work of sufficient height to meet the requirements of the particular case according to the locality or the use to which the tramway is to be devoted. The drawings, Figs. 1, v2, and 3, represent the station at the opposite end of theline from that at which the driving-power is applied. Inasmuch as the driving-power is to be applied in the ordinary and usual manner, I have not deemed it necessary to incumber this application with drawings to show the driving-station,as such drawings would show nothing but what is common and well known.

A represents a frame-work of any suitable construction, and,as above stated,of sufficient height to adapt it to the purposes for which the apparatus is to be used. Properly supported upon the top of the frame-work A, and

Serial No. 231,176. (No model.)

properly framed together, and which receive between their ends the projecting orv overhanging edges of the rails a a, as shown best in Fig. 3. This is for the purpose of preventing the carriage from being lifted off or otherwise displaced. Y

The wheel B is located between the upper and lower timbers of the carriage, and its journals work in boxes or `bearings properly secured to the carriage-frame. Thus the wheel is adapted to move back and forth with the carriage to take up anyvslack inthe rope occasioned by stretching, or by expansion from heat, or Ato yield to the strain occasioned by contraction in cold weather.

At the outer end of the station,and sub` stantially on a level with the wheel B, .is a cross-timber, a, to which the carriage D is at.- tached by a suitable chain or cable, a3, to prevent it from being drawn forward, and by the shortening or lengthening of which chain'or cable the carriage may be adj usted on its track to compensate for expansion or contraction,as above referred to. As a convenient means for drawing the carriage backV to its proper place Having thus described myinvention, I claim Y v aS 116W- In a wire-rope tramway, the combination,

with a supporting-frame provided with the longitudinal timbers a c,the rails a a, the uproo per and lower timbers, d d', of the carriageand contraction in the same under heat and frame, and the wheel B, located between the cold, substantially as set forth. upper and lower cross-timbers and journaled In testimony thatI claim the foregoingasmy in bearings secured to the carriage-frame, of invention I have signed my name, in presence 5 the cross-timber a2, the blocks and tackle lo. of4 two witnesses, this 9th day of October, 1886. x5

cated between the carriage-frame and the crosstimber az, and the chain a3, connecting the car- EARLE C' BACON' riage-fraxne and cross-timber a2, whereby the Vit'nesSes: apparatus may be adj usted to take up slack in WILLIAM H. CLARKSOM' 1o the wire rope and compensate for expansion ANDREW R, FRYER. 

